Train Engineer Was Dazed Before Crash, Lawyer Says

Since this video image was taken on Monday, the Hudson line track has been restored for use.Credit
J.P. Chan/Metropolitan Transit Authority, via Reuters

The engineer who operated the Metro-North Railroad train that derailed over the weekend, killing four people and injuring more than 70, told the authorities on Tuesday that he had become dazed before the accident, suffering what his lawyer referred to as “highway hypnosis.”

The account was delivered as federal investigators said they had found no apparent problems with the train’s brakes or other equipment.

The engineer, William Rockefeller, met with investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and detectives from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New York City police for more than three hours on Tuesday — at one point tearing up, according to his lawyer, Jeffrey P. Chartier.

Mr. Chartier said Mr. Rockefeller was cooperating fully and was “extremely remorseful.”

Mr. Rockefeller told them that when he regained full awareness, he shut down the throttle, tried an emergency braking maneuver and braced for impact, Mr. Chartier said. He added that after the crash, Mr. Rockefeller opened the bulkhead door and helped passengers. The safety board did not immediately confirm this.

Commuting has been disrupted on the railroad’s Hudson line since all seven of the train’s cars and the locomotive derailed around 7:20 a.m. on Sunday, though the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expected to resume near-normal service on Wednesday morning.

A union representative, Anthony Bottalico, the acting director of the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, told reporters that in a conversation, Mr. Rockefeller had described nodding off just before the derailment.

In a rare move, the safety board said late Tuesday that it had removed the union as a party to the investigation because Mr. Bottalico had “discussed and interpreted information related to the ongoing investigation” with the media. One of the few times the board has kicked investigators off its team also involved a New York accident, in 1995, after a subway crash on the Williamsburg Bridge.

The board, which is leading the investigation, cautioned that many circumstances remained unclear and that human error had not been determined as the definitive cause.

To date, though, the agency has not revealed any significant track or equipment deficiencies.

Earl Weener, a member of the safety board, said there were “no anomalies or degradation of the braking performance as the trip went along.”

Mr. Weener said Mr. Rockefeller — whose route began before 6 a.m. in Poughkeepsie, a new schedule he had had since Nov. 17 — was in the second day of a five-day workweek.

Photo

Repair work is underway at the site of the train derailment.Credit
Seth Wenig/Associated Press

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The crash has also attracted the attention of the Federal Railroad Administration, which said in a letter to the transportation authority that it had “serious concerns” about the authority’s recent safety record.

A spokeswoman for the authority, Marjorie Anders, said some trains on Metro-North included “alerter” systems that can sound an alarm if inactivity is detected. If an engineer does not respond by pushing a button within 15 seconds, she said, the brakes are applied. She said the train that derailed had no such system.

The front car, where Mr. Rockefeller was positioned, had a “dead man’s pedal” on the floor. Pressure must be applied to avoid automatic braking.

Officials have said that the brakes were not fully applied until five seconds before the locomotive, in the rear of the train, came to a stop.

Detectives from the New York City and Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, with assistance from the Bronx district attorney’s office, are collecting evidence to examine if officials determine that a crime occurred.

A law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of continuing investigations, said a preliminary examination of Mr. Rockefeller’s phone did not seem to indicate he had been texting or on a call.

Mr. Chartier said Mr. Rockefeller’s phone had been off.

Even if investigators conclude that Mr. Rockefeller erred in operating the train, any potential prosecution could be complicated. One possible precedent came last year, when Ophadell Williams — a bus driver accused of being so tired that he crashed a bus in the Bronx, killing 15 people — was found not guilty of manslaughter and other charges.

Patrick L. Bruno, the lawyer for Mr. Williams in his criminal case, said that if Mr. Rockefeller was found to have been distracted or impaired in any way, the cases appeared at least somewhat analogous.

“I would maintain you’re talking about a civil issue, a lawsuit issue,” he said, “not about prosecuting a man.”

Rail safety experts have suggested that a system known as positive train control might have prevented the derailment. One of its features is to slow trains as they go around bends.

A federal law requires the authority to install positive train control by 2015

With all the rail cars removed, track repairs were quickly made. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Tuesday that the Hudson line was expected to resume 98 percent of its regular service by the Wednesday morning rush.

Andrew W. Lehren and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on December 4, 2013, on Page A28 of the New York edition with the headline: Train Engineer Was Dazed Before Crash, Lawyer Says. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe